


pickin' up the pieces that are falling behind takes time

by sevedra



Series: WinterIron prompt fills [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: B.A.R.F. | Binarily Augmented Retro Framing, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Civil War Team Iron Man, M/M, No Smut, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Possibly Pre-Slash, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Salty about Team Cap, Slow Burn, Team Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-22 16:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17063024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevedra/pseuds/sevedra
Summary: Bucky is disillusioned with Steve after the Civil War. He feels they wronged Stark and he hates how the others talk about him. He and Shuri seek out Stark and his BARF technology to help erase the trigger words. During the process, Bucky and Tony grow close.Story title from matchbox twenty 'the burn'I am super bad at summaries. Sorry





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt mash-up from [Imagine Tony and Bucky](http://http://imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/) 2017  
> prompts in end notes
> 
> I have an awesome beta Joanis from the WinterIron discord, who is on AO3! [kimannhart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimannhart/pseuds/kimannhart)  
> if there are any mistakes remaining, it is all on me

Bucky was silent the whole way to Wakanda. Too much had happened too quickly for him to process. His mind felt like it was in a holding pattern.  He had vaguely heard T’Challa apologize for trying to kill him. It had barely registered. Somewhere over southern Europe, Steve had said that T’Challa was offering them sanctuary as repayment for unjustly going after Bucky. Bucky isn’t so sure T’Challa was being unjust. He had a damned good reason to believe Bucky killed his father. There was a video with his face on it, not like there was a lot of room for argument about who planted the bomb. It was a fluke that someone went to all that trouble to break up the Avengers. Nobody could have foreseen that happening. T’Challa was in the right as far as Bucky was concerned.  
  
Bucky felt much the same about Stark. Hell, if T'Challa was at all justified, then Stark was more than doubly so. He could hardly believe they'd come away from that fight alive. Stark hadn't used any of those terrifying missiles of his. The deadly unibeam had only gone off once and Stark had taken his hated HYDRA arm and not his head. When he'd seen that light glow and start to power up, he knew he was dead. No one could survive being hit with that. But Stark had been holding back. Bucky could understand Stark not wanting to use deadly force against Steve, his teammate, someone he thought of as a friend even if he was mad at him. He should have had no such compunctions about taking out Bucky. He couldn't understand Stark not killing him outright for assassinating Howard and Maria Stark. Whether he'd wanted to do it or not, whether HYDRA was ultimately the ones responsible or not, it was his hands that had brutally murdered Stark's parents.  
  
T’Challa was already in Wakanda when they finally arrived. The Quinjet was fast, but apparently, Wakandan technology could make an even faster personal aircraft. Bucky allowed himself to be led off to a medical suite. He was still coasting in his mind. He’d had a pretty eventful few days and now he was in a lot of pain. It interfered with his thinking. It was easier to just let his brain go into soft-focus while his body knew he was somewhere safe. He had Steve at his back and a promise of asylum from T'Challa. He hated letting his guard down, but if he was able to do it anywhere today, this would be the place.  
  
  
  
The Wakandan doctors gave him something for the pain that was actually effective for super soldiers. His body relaxed for the first time since the arm was severed. He hadn't really recognized how tense he was. He knew it was painful, but he'd had worse pain with HYDRA. He just wasn't used to that anymore. He was going soft. They capped off the exposed wire endings in his shoulder and covered the whole stump with a little beanie. That was when he finally started paying attention to what was happening. Both Steve and T’Challa were in the room, but the other med beds were empty. There seemed to be no other patients in the med suite.  
  
“Where’s Stark?” Bucky slid to the edge of his bed and craned his neck to see every corner of the room. Stark wasn’t in medical. Maybe there was another room. Probably, Stark wouldn't want to be in the same room as Bucky.  
  
“He’s not here. You’re safe. He can’t hurt you now.” Steve blurted out and put his hands up in a placating gesture as he stepped closer to Bucky.  
  
“What do you mean, Sergeant Barnes? Dr. Stark stayed behind in Siberia to make his own way out. As he made his own way in.” T’Challa looked as though he was worried for Bucky’s state of mind.  
  
“No, I mean, I know he was in Siberia. But he was hurt. And the suit was broke. He couldn’t make his way out on his own. Nobody brought him here to see the doctors?” Bucky was confused. He knew Steve had nearly carried him from the bunker, he knew he'd been in a daze and not paying attention, but Steve knew Stark was incapacitated. And T’Challa was there. Surely one of them made sure Stark got out.  
  
“Bucky, Stark was fine. You're safe here. He can't find you.” Steve was close enough now to put one hand on Bucky’s flesh shoulder. He was focusing on Bucky very intently.  
  
“Dr. Stark was injured? Captain, you said Dr. Stark was fine. Is Sergeant Barnes correct? Did Dr. Stark need medical assistance?” T’Challa’s voice had become sharp.  
  
“Stark was fine. He went crazy and was trying to kill Bucky, so I disabled the suit, but he was fine. He was basically cussing me out the whole time me and Bucky were leaving.” Steve sounded annoyed by the line of questioning. He looked at Bucky again in that very focused way that was starting to make Bucky uncomfortable.  
  
Bucky looked around Steve to make eye contact with T'Challa. “He was hurt. Steve broke the suit. He broke Stark. I helped, we were all fighting. But it was two against one and Stark wasn’t trying to kill anybody. He was angry and hurt, for good reason.” Bucky paused and looked down at his flesh hand in his lap. He flexed the fingers. He'd used the flesh hand to kill Maria Stark. He didn't even have the justification in his mind of having used HYDRA's weapon to kill an innocent woman. A bystander. He slid the hand under his leg so he didn't have to see it.  
  
He continued, “I kinda lost the plot for a while in there, it was almost like instinct to fight as hard as I could. I really put the beat down on him. Steve was even worse than I was. Stark was just lashing out, no strategy, no intent but to hurt the ones that had hurt him. There was no kill objective. At the last of it, I thought Steve was going to take his head off with the shield.” Bucky once again met T’Challa’s eyes. “Steve is wrong. Stark was hurt bad. And that suit wasn’t getting him out of there.”  
  
“Of course he was trying to kill you! He would have killed you if I hadn’t stopped him! He is fine. He’s probably home right now chatting with his buddy Ross.” Steve stepped right up against the med bed. Close enough that Bucky could feel the heat from Steve’s hip almost touching his thigh.  
  
“Captain, General Ross is no friend of Dr. Stark's. Was he injured that badly? Is Sergeant Barnes saying that you left a seriously wounded man behind?” T’Challa appeared personally affronted.  
  
"No, your majesty. Stark was not seriously hurt. Bucky was the one seriously hurt. Look at what Stark did to him!"  
  
“If nobody helped Stark leave, then yeah, we left a man behind.” Bucky couldn’t believe that Steve had just left Stark there in a freezing HYDRA bunker. That he had never planned to help him.  
  
“I will check into this. Right now.” T’Challa turned and left the room after a pointed and probably angry glance at Steve.  
  
  
  
T'Challa came back to talk to Bucky a few hours later. "You were right, Sergeant. Dr. Stark was still in Siberia, in a destroyed suit. He was unconscious and in respiratory distress. He needed immediate medical attention. Two of my physicians remained with him for a time. I notified his Vision anonymously and the doctors retreated into hiding when he arrived to remove Dr. Stark."  
  
"Is he gonna be okay? He pulled his punches, but I didn't. And I really thought Steve was gonna kill him." Bucky wasn't at all sure he could live with himself if he had killed the entire Stark family. And one of those when he was supposedly in his right mind. He closed his eyes to shut out T'Challa's solemn face but in the dark behind his lids, all he could see was Stark's fear when Bucky was trying to stop that glowing light that powered his suit.  
  
"He will recover in time. We gave him some advanced treatments. Nothing that will be obvious to outsiders, but enough to ensure his survival and prevent permanent damage. Except perhaps his lungs. Apparently, his previous experiences left him with only partial lungs. I was unaware of this. The damage to his ribcage and the wounds that damage left on his lungs is repairable for the most part. However, I fear the already reduced lung size and the breakage of an artificial sternum will leave a more permanent disability."  
  
T'Challa looked thoughtful, "I was certain Dr. Stark came to assist you. I believed that he intended to help you and then peacefully take you in. I am sorry I misjudged his purpose."  
  
"Oh, you didn't. He came to help. He wasn't coming there to attack us. It was that other guy. The fake doctor. Zemo?" T'Challa nodded and Bucky finished his explanation.  "Zemo had a video. He wanted to break up the Avengers. Steve knew about the video, Stark didn't. It was proof that The Winter Soldier assassinated Howard Stark. And his wife."  
  
T'Challa actually stepped back in his shock. "You murdered his parents and he let you live?"  
  
"Well, he was pretty pissed. I think, though, that he was maddest at Steve. Steve knew and kept it a secret. Stark went after Steve first. I might should've let them fight it out, but I jumped in to help Steve, just like I always have. We ganged up on him."  
  
T'Challa's expression was pensive. Bucky hoped he wasn't going to kick them out now. T'Challa had fought on Stark's side at the airport. He might not want to help someone who had nearly killed his ally. Given T'Challa's intense reaction to the death of his own father, there was little chance he would be accepting of Bucky knowing that he had killed someone's father even if it wasn't T'Challa's.  
  
"This is disturbing news. I came to you first about Dr. Stark's status since you're the one who expressed concern. I feel that I need to have a very serious conversation now with the Captain. I fear he has misled me about the reasons for his actions and his intentions. You rest here. The doctors will be back soon to provide further treatment options."  
  
"What about The Winter Soldier Core? Zemo killed them, but HYDRA could still use their corpses for serum research."  
  
"I will send a team to incinerate the bodies. They will not be allowed to fall back into HYDRA's possession. But they should not be allowed in the hands of any government either. It will be taken care of."  
  
T'Challa left Bucky alone with his thoughts. He had been triggered just yesterday. The terror he had felt when Zemo started reciting the words was still under his skin. He hoped no one had died while he was in Soldier mode. He was thankful Stark hadn't died in Siberia. He had so many deaths on his hands, so many people HYDRA had sent him after. He didn't want to think that he had almost added to that tally of his own free will. Sleep was a long time coming. His exhausted body was no match for his active brain. When he finally slept, his dreams were filled with a juxtaposition of Stark alone in the freezing HYDRA bunker and himself alone in a sea of endless white and cold. Both left to die, alone.  
  
  
  
Bucky spent the rest of the week being thoroughly examined by Wakanda's medical professionals. They seemed far more advanced than the rest of the world. HYDRA's scientific expertise in both technology and biology had been cutting edge, often ahead of what was generally available. What Wakanda had to offer was superior to HYDRA in every way.  
  
Bucky stayed in the medical suite that week. Steve was there nearly all the time. He had left for over half a day early on. When he'd returned, the rest of his team was with him. Bucky hadn't ever imagined Steve would break people out of jail. Especially not people who were rightfully arrested for crimes they actually committed. The team wasn't precisely welcome in Wakanda. T'Challa was working on a plan for them to leave. Sooner rather than later.  
  
Bucky appreciated T'Challa allowing him refuge here but he didn't feel he could remain. T'Challa believed he had wronged Bucky. Bucky knew he had wronged Stark. If T'Challa owed a debt to Bucky, then how much greater was the debt Bucky owed to Stark?


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky had been in Wakanda for three weeks when he finally realized, he was not where he needed to be. He sat in the room T'Challa had provided for him and tried to figure out what was happening now and what had happened before. He had to get everything clear in his mind before he could make any changes or decisions. Staying here, hiding out, would not go far towards making amends with Stark.  
  
  
  
Things with Steve were not going well. He seemed determined that Bucky was the same Bucky from basically 1942. He couldn't even accept that Bucky during World War II was a different person than the guy he had grown up with. The war had drastically changed Bucky. He was no longer an innocent kid, even at 25. He'd mostly enjoyed boot camp. It was hard work, but he had made friends and felt like he was going to accomplish something, be a good soldier and help the war effort. The actions he would take for those goals were still abstract. Sniper training had been very different. He was a good shot, very good. But he also was aware that he was working toward being especially good at killing people. He knew he would kill people in the war, this was just a more focused look at exactly how he would be doing that. It made his job as a soldier more concrete.  
  
Going back to Brooklyn after that, before shipping out to the front, he had known then that he had started to change. He was already a soldier in his mind and heart. A man who was going to fight and kill people. A sniper who barely had to use his imagination to know what killing would look like. He had tried to be happy and relaxed, for Steve, and also for himself. Going to the Expo, going dancing, flirting with dames, it was all an effort to convince himself he was still the same Bucky Barnes he had always been. It hadn't been very successful. He had been relieved when Steve went off on his own and didn't come back that night. Bucky was able to let his mask slip for a while. If his sleep was restless that night before meeting his train in the morning, well, he attributed it to anticipation rather than dread.  
  
  
  
His biggest changes had come in Europe. He had to kill men. Normal men. He couldn't ever shake the knowledge that those guys were soldiers who had friends and families and believed they were fighting for a good cause. They were loyal to their own countries. The Allied forces were the good guys, but the foot soldiers on the Axis side were just ordinary men. Bucky looked down the scope and put bullet holes in men who most likely wanted to go home as much as he did. He was saving the lives of Allied soldiers, every shot he made was another man on his side that lived to see another day. He knew their cause and his actions were righteous. That didn't stop it from weighing on his conscience.  
  
Being a prisoner in Azzano had changed him even further. There was no more happy Bucky. He was hurt. He was sick. He was trapped. He was never going home. He lost hope in there. That was all before Zola picked him to be his next guinea pig. The days he had spent strapped to that med bed were the worst days of his life to that point. He had prayed for death. The pain was unbearable. The horrible things Zola did to him. The injections that burned like fire in his veins. The scalpel cutting nearly to the bone so Zola could time the healing. Being forced to perform exercises and feats of strength that he hadn’t been able to do before Zola got hold of him. It was terrifying. He had believed he would never leave that room. Steve’s appearance had been a miracle.  
  
  
  
Continuing to fight in the war was a nightmare. He had been offered an honorable discharge. He had been a prisoner of war. He had undergone torture for his country. He could stop fighting, stop killing, he could go back to his life, back to Brooklyn. Steve was at the front though. And no matter what else went on in the world, Bucky would always have Steve’s back. He couldn’t leave Steve to fight in the war without his best friend at his six. So, he stayed. He did his best to hide the nightmares. The memories that came to him when he was most vulnerable. The pain and the fear that kept him awake most nights. He worked hard to keep his new strength under control. He didn’t want anyone to see him do anything that would make them question what Zola had done. His shooting was better than ever. His eyesight seemed sharper than it had been before. He could hear footsteps in the distance, further away than anyone else could besides Steve. And a coldness settled in his bones. A calm, emotionless refuge. He didn’t feel the same horror when he killed. It should have been worrisome, but he was so detached from himself that he didn’t care as long as he got the job done.  
  
  
  
The fall from the train was mostly a blank. He now remembered what he thought was all of his life. The fall was a blur of white, pain, and wind. He didn’t think it was a repressed or lost memory from what HYDRA had done to him. He was pretty sure it was just so traumatic his brain never formed the memory of it at all. He remembered Steve trying to reach him from the train car. He knew then that there was no way he could do it. He remembers reconciling himself to that. Knowing that he had finally reached the end. Trying in his mind to make peace with dying. Then the rail he’d been clinging to gave way. He knew only the wind and the fear before he knew only the pain and the endless white.  
  
  
  
Since he escaped HYDRA, he had laid low and tried to get his head straight. He had thought he was doing well. He could manage his panic attacks on his own. He could soothe himself after nightmares. He was integrating into society on his own. Then the bombing in Vienna happened, and he knew he was a target and had to abandon the life he’d been building. He didn’t want to go back on the run. He had been making a good life for himself. It was small, quiet, and sometimes lonely, but it was his and of his own making. He hated to leave.  
  
When Bucky thought about Bucharest he felt a slow, burning anger. He had a good life there. He was avoiding all conflict. He didn’t have Steve breathing down his neck, he wasn’t on HYDRA’s radar. He was content, if not happy. While the beginning of the end could be laid at Zemo’s feet, the bulk of the chaos was firmly Steve Rogers' doing. Steve had shown up in his apartment and suddenly everything was happening at once. He didn’t have time to breathe, let alone think. He knew Steve’s presence always meant a fight of some kind. Violence and fisticuffs followed Steve like a stray dog. Bucky had tried to get him to let him alone. But Steve was nothing if not stubborn.  
  
He thought about that first day a lot. He had been in the market when he’d seen the newspaper. He had been in full view of more than twenty witnesses. He had been at work earlier in the day. He had a shift’s worth of people who could verify that he hadn’t been in Vienna. The paper scared him. He knew his life in Bucharest was compromised. He accepted that he would have to relocate. He hoped he could avoid being brought in for questioning. He didn’t want to have to answer for his actions under HYDRA’s control. And he couldn’t be sure that anyone who brought him in wouldn’t be HYDRA anyway.  
  
He had made his way back to his apartment. He’d traveled at his usual pace. No need to hurry. No desire to draw extra attention to himself. No one knew he was here except the people he already knew here. None of them knew who he was. They would recognize him from the news, but they would have a period of questioning and denial when confronted with their quiet acquaintance being a wanted man. He should have plenty of time. Go to the apartment. Get his go bag. Grab his journals. Hit the road. He’d probably travel further east into Ukraine or south into Turkey. He has had practice slipping into countries without bothering with border checkpoints. He could make a new life for himself elsewhere as easily as he had here. It was a shame, but it was doable.  
  
  
  
Steve was waiting for him in his apartment. He didn’t even know how Steve had known where to find him. Steve had notoriously been over most of the planet following leads that made no sense unless they were ones tracking The Winter Soldier’s previous activities. Logically, if Steve had known he was here, Steve would have been here before now. He didn’t believe Steve would have left him alone if he’d had any choice.  
  
“You’re Steve.” Of course, he knew who Steve was. He might not feel connected to his past, but he remembered most of it in a detached sort of way. He remembered Steve well enough.  
  
“I wasn’t in Vienna. I don’t do that anymore.” He knew it was futile. If Steve was here, the authorities wouldn’t be far behind. Probably some SHIELD remnants, maybe other Avengers. It was going to be uncontrollable.  
  
“It doesn’t have to end in a fight Buck.” Steve looked so earnest, so serious. It was maybe the biggest lie Bucky had ever heard from him. He knew Steve better than that.  
  
“It always ends in a fight.” Bucky deflated in defeat. There was no getting away anymore.  
  
Before Bucky could figure out what to do next, how to handle Steve, all hell broke loose. Someone was banging at the door like they wanted to take it off its hinges. A smoke grenade was thrown in through the window. It was covered with the shield before it went off, but some Special Forces types were coming in already. They were shouting in German. Bucky hadn’t heard German since HYDRA. Back before the Russians. He flashed back immediately to Zola and torture and screaming and pain. Bucky had slipped straight into survival mode. It wasn’t quite The Winter Soldier, Bucky was still in his right mind, but he was not in control of the situation or his reactions.  
  
For a long time, or maybe for seconds, all he knew was punching and kicking and running and jumping. He fought and fought but couldn’t get free of the Germans. Steve was there, fighting at his side. He didn’t know when Steve arrived, but he was glad for the rescue. For a moment, small Steve was superimposed over big Steve. Bucky shook his head to clear his vision. The Captain America suit was wrong. Where were Steve’s guns? This wasn’t the way Bucky thought it went before. Was this a memory? Was he reliving something? Was this happening now? Where was he?  
  
When he finally escaped the apartment building, he was attacked by a giant cat. A man? In a catsuit? This was not the war. Even the Germans didn’t have man-cats. But there was no time to think, the man-cat was trying to kill him. He thought maybe the Germans were trying to capture him, but this man-cat was deadly. Bucky tried to run away. To get away from this chaos and violence. He responded by instinct. Soon, he was in the street in a traffic-heavy tunnel. Being on the run in Bucharest was a disaster. So many civilians, nowhere to hide, nowhere to go, no way to really escape. The man-cat wouldn’t let up, the Germans were still in pursuit. He simply could not get away. Cars were crashing, he was jumping cars and jumping onto cars and he could not get away. He tried to steal a motorcycle as his last hope for outrunning his pursuers, but even that wasn’t enough. He threw a sticky grenade behind him to throw off the men chasing him. He heard the rumble and crash of stonework and metal. It still hadn’t been enough. The man-cat threw him from the bike and then Iron Man’s twin was arresting them.  
  
  
But it still wasn’t over.


	3. Chapter 3

After listening to Steve and his team blame every single problem in their lives on Stark, Bucky stopped joining them for meals. Steve hovered and fussed. Bucky finally convinced him that he just didn't like eating in company anymore. He made some vague reference to HYDRA and Steve dropped the subject. Dropping that one issue didn't stop Steve from implying that Stark was basically to blame for the poor state of the world. It was disturbing how delusional these Avengers seemed to be.  
  
He was curious how so many people on a team could hate one member so much. If he was that bad, why was he on the team? First, he was villainized by them as The Merchant of Death because he used to be a weapons manufacturer. Which, what? Howard Stark had started the weapons production and Steve had admired Howard tremendously. Why was it bad that his son continued in his father's footsteps? Then, Stark had stopped making weapons. You would think the team would like that about him since they hated him making them to begin with. But, no. Stopping making weapons was turning his back on the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in service of the military of our great nation. Or some such drivel. So, Stark lost either way.  
  
Another point of contention seemed to be Stark's dating history. Although why was anyone's guess. Stark hadn't dated any of them, so what did they care? They called him immoral for having had sex with everything not nailed down back in his 20s. Which, Bucky had done as well. Best not to bring that up. Stark was about 40 now, so who cared what he did when he was young? Steve's team, that's who. Internet research—and wasn't the internet the best thing since sliced bread?—seemed to indicate Stark had stopped dating at all when he came back from Afghanistan and shut down the weapons department. Sometime after that, he had started seeing his long-time employee slash new boss and didn't seem to have dated anyone else at all. That was over six years ago. If he wasn't doing it anymore, why were they bringing it up? And even if he had been, really, his love life was none of their business.  
  
The team vilified Stark for having money, too. He was apparently buying friendship and approval left and right. They complained about his attempts to buy their own affection by supplying them with new armor and equipment and giving them a compound to live in. They had accepted the things Stark had given them, they lived on Stark's property and Stark paid for most of their mission expenses and rebuilding efforts. It looked like they were using Stark for his money and then blaming him for it. Bucky didn't understand these people at all. He didn't like them and he didn't see why Steve liked them. They were bullies, plain and simple.  
  
The longer Bucky thought about it, the more he realized that Steve liked them and approved of their behavior because he was the same. Steve had become a bully, himself. He was overbearing. He refused to hear any dissenting voices. He insisted that it was his way or the highway. And he belittled people behind their back. If they were back in Brooklyn, Steve would have gotten himself beaten to a pulp in an alley if he had heard anyone talking the way he was now.  
  
  
  
Bucky especially wanted to hide when the team talked about Wanda's circumstances. Wanda claimed that Stark had killed her family. Which lead her to believe that she was entitled to hate him forever and that he owed her everything in reparation. He thought that might be skewed, but it was hard to tell. He had killed Stark's family. He felt that he owed Stark a debt that he may never be able to sufficiently repay. Was he that different than Stark then? On the other hand, even though they all agreed that Wanda was owed by Stark for his actions, no one believed that Stark was owed by Bucky for his own. Bucky ended up retreating to his room more and more. He simply couldn't bear spending time with these crazy people.  
  
He listened to them call the Accords a Stark plan to control them. The team seemed to have originally begun to fight against each other even before the Vienna bombing. Stark had called a meeting to present the Accords, along with some Very Bad Man named Ross. The Accords were meant to dictate the missions the Avengers were allowed or not allowed to take. It sounded a lot like the military to Bucky, but Sam and Steve, both former military who remembered more than Bucky did, disagreed. The consensus was that Stark wanted no blame to fall on him from anything that happened on missions. Which was odd since Stark was already taking responsibility for repairs and compensation for things that happened on missions. It was confusing.  
  
Bucky went to T'Challa to get answers. It was very enlightening. The Avengers had been under the command of SHIELD until it fell with HYDRA. SHIELD had given them their missions. Told them where to go and where not to go. They had not had an issue with that. After SHIELD was gone, Stark had taken on the majority of the financial burden of the Avengers. He wasn't the one who chose the missions, that was Steve. So, they had no one to answer to after SHIELD. They made some bad calls and caused a lot of property damage and civilian casualties outside of the US. Since Steve's entire outfit was the symbol of the US, other countries took offense to the US sending people in to destroy their country. Only the US didn't send them, they sent themselves. So the countries of the world called for someone to have an overlook for what the Avengers were doing. A lot of the countries of the world. 117 was the final total before the Vienna bombing. They called them the Sokovia Accords after the biggest disaster the Avengers were responsible for. And that Very Bad Man Stark was hanging out with? Secretary of State for the US.  
  
Bucky was overwhelmed with the amount of misinformation he was getting from Steve and his team. He spent days doing research about the Avengers and missions they had been on. Things they had done, messes they had left behind. He asked T'Challa for a copy of the Accords. This document seemed to have torn the team apart. Although, from what Bucky was hearing, they weren't really a team to begin with. They had been divided from the start. T'Challa set him up with a legal advisor to explain the things he didn't understand in the Accords. There were some pretty sketchy parts. But overall, it was a good idea. It was a plea from over 100 nations of the world for the Avengers to stop coming into their homes and wrecking everything. Seemed like the Avengers would still be able to go on a lot of missions. And no one would stop them if there was an alien invasion or a world-threatening catastrophe. Bucky decided if he were given the choice, he would sign the damned thing.  
  
While Bucky was avoiding Steve's team and reading up on the current political atmosphere of the world, he was also seeing Princess Shuri on occasion. She was very interested in helping him remove the HYDRA implanted trigger words. She was sure it could be done. There were a lot of things she tried, up to and including putting him in a cryochamber temporarily and trying to decode his brain waves or something. Nothing she had tried had worked so far. So he still had the triggers in his head. Shuri was currently at a loss. She asked for his permission to contact Tony Stark. Bucky immediately told her no.  
  
  
  
When Steve realized that Princess Shuri was making no progress on removing the triggers from Bucky's mind, he thought of his own solution. He spoke with Wanda. Bucky was alone in his room, relaxing with a book Shuri had recommended about a boy wizard, when Steve knocked. He didn't wait for Bucky to respond before opening the door and letting himself and Wanda into Bucky's room. Bucky put his book aside and sighed loudly.  
  
"Thanks for knocking, Steve, but you know, you should wait until I say come in before you actually come in."  
  
"We've never had a need for that between us, Bucky."  
  
"Well, maybe I need that now. And even if we didn't need that, you shouldn't bring a dame in my room without making sure I'm dressed."  
  
"Oh. Yeah. Of course. Sorry, Buck."  
  
Steve didn't look sorry to Bucky. He looked like he thought Bucky was being unreasonable. Steve simply couldn't understand that there needed to be personal boundaries. Bucky needed personal boundaries. He had none with HYDRA. He had all he wanted in Romania. Now, he was back to nearly none again. He didn't like it, at all.  
  
"So, uh, Buck. I was talking with Wanda about your HYDRA triggers."  
  
Again with no personal boundaries. Why was Steve talking about Bucky's very personal business with a girl Bucky barely knew? Shouldn't it be Bucky's decision who knew what about his damaged brain?  
  
"She can see into people's minds. Sometimes she can change what's there. She thinks she can help you out. Maybe get rid of the triggers for you."  
  
"What? You want me to let a stranger into my brain? To change things? No. No way, Steve."  
  
"Just give her a chance. Wanda?"  
  
The girl with Steve had always been quiet when Bucky saw her. The only time he heard her talk much was when she was talking about Stark. She didn't speak now either. She lifted her hands and a red mist glowed around her fingers.  
  
  
  
Bucky was immediately slammed back into a HYDRA bunker where they were doing human experimentation. He hadn't realized he remembered this. He was silent. His back to a wall. His guard dogs were in a semi-circle in front of him, armed to the teeth. A couple were keeping their eyes on the girl in the center of the room. A couple were keeping an eye on The Winter Soldier. They were the more experienced ones. They knew better than to turn their backs to him. The girl was young, probably late teens. She was small, short and thin and almost wispy. Two men were strapped to chairs in front of her. A red mist glowed around her fingers. One of the men began to scream. He begged and pleaded to be left alone, to be spared. He acted as though he were under imminent threat of death, but there was no threat that The Winter Soldier could see. The screaming and crying went on for half an hour before the man seized and shook and then slumped in his bonds. The Winter Soldier was sure the man was dead. Even while the first man was scared within his own mind, the second man was crying. He made little sound but still sobbed incessantly. Again, The Winter Soldier could see no reason for the man's behavior.  
  
When the first man died, the girl's handler stepped forward and placed his hand on her arm. The red mist disappeared and the second man trembled with tears running down his face.  The girl stepped behind her handler and he spoke to the other men who were observing. The girl had come to HYDRA asking to be made strong and powerful so she could exact revenge on someone. The Winter Soldier tuned him out. This had nothing to do with him. He knew what he needed to know. The girl was dangerous. She had some sort of mind magic. She was to be avoided at all cost unless directly ordered to interact with her.  
  
  
  
When Bucky was able to focus on his surroundings again, he was still in his room. Steve was holding him back from the girl.  He wanted to attack her. He needed to stop her before she could get in his head. Steve was preventing that. Actually, Steve had brought her here for the express purpose of getting into Bucky's head.  
  
"She's HYDRA, Steve! We have to restrain her. Why don't I have any weapons! She is dangerous! How did she even trick you into letting her on your team?" Bucky struggled to get away from Steve and get his hands on the HYDRA operative in his room. Steve wouldn't budge.  
  
"She isn't HYDRA, Buck! She was tricked! She left them and joined us. She helped us save the world. She was manipulated. She didn't want to work for HYDRA. Just like you." Steve tried to placate Bucky, but the more he said the more agitated and angry Bucky became.  
  
"Tricked? I remember her! She was a volunteer! They bragged about her coming to them! She is nothing like me! She's HYDRA!" Bucky finally broke free of Steve's hold.  
  
Wanda had been pressed against the wall but when she saw Bucky was no longer restrained, her hands came up and a red mist glowed around her fingers. Bucky was terrified she would get in his head before he could stop her. He swung his fist and struck the side of her head before the mist could reach him. She slumped to the floor unconscious.  
  
"Steve. Get out of my room. Get her out of my room. I better not see her again or I swear I will kill her. She is a HYDRA witch and you are stupid to trust her. Get her out!"  
  
"Buck, please, just listen. Stark killed her family..." Bucky interrupted Steve before he could continue.  
  
"I don't care what Stark did to her family! She is HYDRA! I will kill her if she so much as looks at me. Understood?" Bucky could barely contain his anger and fear. His head was spinning and he could hear the blood rushing through his veins.  
  
"Ok, Bucky. We'll go. We can talk about it later, yeah?" Steve lifted Wanda in a bridal carry and slipped into the hallway.  
  
Bucky slammed the door behind him. He let his knees give way and sat on the floor with his back to the door. Steve had a HYDRA operative on his team. A mind-twisting HYDRA operative. And he wanted Bucky to let that evil witch into his head. It wasn't going to happen. Tomorrow morning he was going to tell Shuri to call Tony Stark and beg, borrow, or steal whatever she needed to in order to get Stark to agree to help them.


	4. Chapter 4

Shuri called up a view screen and showed Bucky Stark's latest unbelievable invention. He watched a video of a presentation Stark had given at MIT. Stark used some glasses and electrodes to walk through a memory of his parents. He talked about what happened in the memory, then he altered some of his actions in the memory. He explained that it didn't actually change the memory. It simply let a person look at their bad memories in a safe environment and visualize all the "what-ifs" and "wish I hads" that people beat themselves up with, allowing them to deal with their emotional connection to it. It was amazing. Shuri was sure that she could combine Stark's invention with some Wakandan technology and remove the triggers ability to affect Bucky's brain.  
  
Bucky watched the MIT presentation over and over again. It was fascinating. Stark was fascinating. The memory he walked through was the night his parents died. He hadn't known then that they had been murdered by HYDRA. He only knew that he had been a petulant brat and his parents had gone out. He had never had the chance to tell them he loved them one last time. Never gotten to say he was sorry for being an ass. Never made peace with his father. It was heartbreaking. And knowing now that he was the one who had made all of the scenarios impossible, Bucky felt even more compelled to make amends. It was after he had watched the video on repeat all day that he finally noticed the timestamp in the corner. Stark had been making this presentation just 48 hours before he watched The Winter Soldier kill them right in front of him. No wonder Stark had reacted so violently. The loss was fresh all over again. He had just lived through their loss. It was like they had died only two days before.  
  
Bucky agreed that Shuri could contact Stark about the BARF technology, And how funny was that stupid name? Stark was a 40-year-old little boy. Shuri worked with T'Challa to arrange a conversation between them about using the premise of Stark's equipment. When the day finally came that they spoke with Stark, Bucky hid in his room all day. He was afraid of Stark refusing. He was afraid of Stark agreeing. He was afraid that he would have to see Stark in order to use his invention. He was afraid that he would never see Stark again and so never have the chance to apologize and offer to make it up somehow.  
  
Stark agreed to the use of his BARF. He refused to send it to Wakanda. Wakanda was unwilling to allow another outsider to enter their borders. T'Challa was currently working on finding a non-confrontational way to remove Steve and his team from their country. He reluctantly gave his approval for Princess Shuri to go to New York and work with Stark in person. Bucky would be going with her.  
  
  
  
T”Challa sent them on a private Wakanda plane. They went in under some diplomatic pass that didn’t involve officials searching the aircraft. Bucky was in the US illegally, but no one else knew that. Steve and the others had talked a lot about the Avengers training compound, Bucky expected to be taken there. The limo Stark sent took them into the city instead. Bucky found himself staring up at Stark Tower. The place was a monument to ego and hubris. Maybe coming to Stark was a bad plan.  
  
Stark himself greeted them when they exited the elevator. He was wearing sunglasses, indoors, and a very fancy suit. It probably cost more money than Bucky had ever seen in his life. Stark’s posture was rigid and aloof. Bucky was nervous. He kept his flesh hand behind his back and tried to look non-threatening.  
  
“Well, Winter Wonder, welcome to my humble abode. Princess. You’re looking as brilliant and beautiful as ever.” Stark spoke easily and lightly. No one would know from his voice that he was stiff as a board and uncomfortable as hell.  
  
“Thank you, Dr. Stark. I am most eager to work with you on this clever device you’ve made.” Princess Shuri was smiling and relaxed. She seemed either oblivious to the tension in the room or very well versed in ignoring awkward situations.  
  
“Stark. I appreciate you doing this. I know you don’t have to. I owe you for it. And I owe you for…” Bucky wanted to apologize and express how indebted he was, but Stark interrupted.  
  
“No way, Popsicle. No debts owed here. I’ve done a lot of research since Siberia. Cap was keeping more than one secret. I had only a surface knowledge of what you’d been through. I didn’t really know much about the brainwashing. I didn’t know at all about the torture. I should have made it my business to learn when Cap first told me The Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes. But he said he was taking care of it and I didn’t need to bother. I was preoccupied with, well, with a lot at the time. I let it slide. So, no hard feelings?” Stark blithely dismissed Bucky’s attempt to atone and glossed over the strain between them.  
  
Once Stark had said his piece, his posture relaxed. He rubbed his hands together and turned to Shuri. “Okay, enough emotional blathering.” He pretended to shudder. “Let’s get to the science!”  
  
  
  
In the workshop, Bucky met three actual robots. They were amazing. They weren’t humanoid, but they could see and touch. He was pretty sure their beeping translated to real words. Stark responded to them as if that were the case. He also met FRIDAY. At first, he thought FRIDAY was a person. Someone in another room speaking to them over a speaker system. She was not. FRIDAY was a real live AI. An artificial, thinking, learning personality that Stark had created from scratch. From out of his own mind. He had basically created life. Bucky was in awe.  
  
He was allowed to roam a bit in the shop. He spent some time playing with the ‘bots. They liked to bring him random objects. He would take whatever they brought and pat them on their claw and say thank you. They were like children, or maybe puppies. He threw a ball for them for a while and they raced each other to recover it and return it. It was adorable. When Stark called one of them to come help him, the others followed and Bucky was left to himself. He walked around and looked at tools he had never seen before. Examined bits of wires and metal that were connected in some way to be a new thing that he couldn’t figure out. Stark was making real things out of basically nothing.  
  
After spending an hour listening to Stark and Shuri speak a virtual foreign language and ignore his presence entirely, Bucky cleared his throat and broke into their conversation. “Hey. I was wondering where we were staying? I might need a shower, and honestly, a nap. Can I call a cab to the hotel?”  
  
“Hotel! Hell no. You’re staying here. I have plenty of space. As a matter of fact, you can stay in Rogers’ old rooms. Already furnished for the 1940s. FRIDAY will show you the way.”  
  
The voice from the ceiling spoke again. “Sergeant Barnes. If you will follow the lights along the floor, I will assist you to your suite.”  
  
Bucky followed the lights, entered the elevator and found that his floor number was already selected. He memorized it for future use and then had to crack his jaw to clear the pressure in his ears from the elevator speed. He stepped out into a hallway and trailed after more lights. The door he stopped at had a palm print secure entrance, but FRIDAY was able to bypass it. She also helped him reset it to accept his own palm print as well as Steve’s.  
  
The suite was enormous. Easily four times the size of his apartment in Romania. The door opened into a large living room where a sofa, chairs, tables and a huge television were all gathered in a tight cluster in the middle of the space. Bucky wandered through and found a kitchen with more gadgets than he could figure out the purposes for.  The polished metal countertops and appliances seemed too futuristic for Steve. Past the kitchen was a room for laundry, an entire room, solely for laundry. He shook his head and backtracked to the living room.  
  
A small hallway on the opposite side of the room had four doors. One was an artist’s studio. It was stocked with canvases and paints and drawing pads and what looked like colored pencils and chalks and oil crayons. Every package was unopened. An easel sat in the sunlight covered in dust. Bucky checked the next door, it was a bathroom almost as big as the studio. A glassed-in shower stall, an enormous bathtub, two sinks, marble countertops and shelves full of shampoos and hair products and a variety of soaps. The third door was a bedroom. A large bed, a dresser, bookshelves full of books. There were framed drawings by Steve on the wall. Bucky thought it must be Steve’s own, until he saw the last room. A second bedroom with a smaller bed whose blankets were crisp and tightly cornered with military precision. The shelves in this room didn't hold books, they held depression glass knick-knacks and replica toys from the 1940s. There was an honest to god wind-up gramophone in the corner. A well-worn leather jacket was draped over a straight back chair. This was obviously Steve’s room.  
  
Feeling grimy from traveling all morning and standing in Stark’s workshop most of the afternoon, Bucky made his way back to the bathroom. He turned the knobs in the shower. There were six of them. He had no idea what they did. Hot and cold water flow seemed the least the shower was capable of. He adjusted the temperature until it was near scalding. He stripped down and stepped under the spray. It was bliss. The pounding pressure was perfect. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back under the water. The shower was so relaxing, he stood there for over ten minutes just luxuriating in the heat and steam. Finally, he washed himself and his hair using Steve’s products. All of them smelled like the 1940s. The labels all read Old Spice. When Bucky bought his next toiletries, he would not be buying this brand. He dried off using the thickest, softest towel he had ever used. Stark’s entire tower was full of the best money could buy.  
  
Bucky went back to the guest room. It seemed more comfortable to wear sweats for a nap, so he put those on. He lay down on top of the blanket and fluffed the pillow under his head. He sighed deeply and thought about his current circumstances. He was in Stark’s home. He was going to use Stark’s tech. He was going to eat Stark’s food. He was already using Stark’s water, beds, and towels. The debt he thought he owed Stark was growing. He drifted off wondering what he could possibly do or offer to Stark that would work off that debt.  
  
  
  
FRIDAY woke him an hour later with an announcement for dinner. Stark and Shuri were on the common floor and Bucky was expected to join them. He dug clothes out of his bag and brushed his hair. He was never going to look as fancy as Stark, but he hoped Shuri wasn’t dressed up too much. He braced himself for making small talk over food. He wanted things to be less stressed. He was determined he could speak with Stark like he was just another person. Not like he was a person Bucky had tried to kill. Lord, it was going to be difficult. He wasn’t sure he had ever had to have a conversation with someone he tried to kill before. Maybe T’Challa, maybe Steve. But with T’Challa, he was the aggressor. With Steve, he was still The Winter Soldier. But he could do this. He straightened his back and followed FRIDAY's light prompts to dinner


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a bit from Tony's POV

King T’Challa entered the common room where Captain Rogers and his team were gathered. The Captain had sent a message that he needed to see T’Challa urgently. Everyone except the Captain was seated across the sofas available. Captain Rogers was pacing rapidly, fists clenched. T’Challa knew this was not going to be pleasant.  
  
“Good evening, Captain. How can I help you?” T’Challa kept his voice low and even. He saw no need to bring this conversation to an argument before it had to be.  
  
“You can tell me where Bucky is! I went to his room and he wasn’t there and his stuff was gone.  It looked like he had never been there it was so clean. One of your guards said he left! He had nowhere to go!” Steve was obviously angry and probably scared.  
  
T”Challa realized that Sergeant Barnes had not told his friend that he was leaving. If he hadn’t done that much, then he would also not have told him that he had been in touch with Dr. Stark. The Sergeant apparently didn't want the Captain to know where he was or what he was doing. This would need to be handled delicately.  
  
“I am sorry Captain. Sergeant Barnes left Wakanda yesterday. He settled what affairs he had here two days ago. He has gone and will not be returning.” T’Challa was a little miffed that Sergeant Barnes had left this to him instead of speaking with the Captain himself. This was a precarious situation.   
  
T’Challa was under pressure from his Council to get the Avengers, or the ex-Avengers now, out of Wakanda. T’Challa had never intended them to be there at all. He had offered sanctuary to Sergeant Barnes, he had assumed that Captain Rogers would simply deliver him. T’Challa had not realized that the Captain would not leave afterward. It was not the best solution, but T’Challa could have gotten it accepted by his advisors with a little time. Before that could happen, Captain Rogers had taken the Quinjet he arrived in and left. T’Challa thought that was that. Ten hours later, the Quinjet returned with the rest of the Captain’s team. They had broken out of jail and came to Wakanda. Permission had not been asked nor granted. T’Challa was in a tight spot. He could not deny them without causing an unpleasant incident. They had already shown that they would fight their way out of any situation they didn't like. He couldn’t afford a battle in Wakanda with a group of trespassing erstwhile superheroes. However, the government was never going to allow international fugitives and terrorists to remain.  
  
“What do you mean he’s gone? He won’t be returning? Where is he? Where did he go?” Steve moved toward T’Challa in a menacing manner. He had drawn himself up to his full height and raised his head back. He looked angry and willing to go through anyone in his path to find Sergeant Barnes.  
  
“Captain. Stand down!” Okoye moved to stand between T’Challa and Captain Rogers. She raised her spear like a barrier between herself and the Captain.  
  
“Where did Bucky go? Why didn’t you tell me he was leaving? Why wasn’t I consulted about this?”  
  
“I do apologize Captain. Sergeant Barnes left on his own free will. His departure was not a secret to the staff or the Wakandan authorities. If he chose not to inform you, well. That is no concern of mine.”  
  
“He would have told me! He wouldn't have left without me! Tell me where you’ve sent him!” Captain Rogers’ voice rose and he moved closer to T’Challa, his fists clenching and unclenching rhythmically.  
  
Okoye stepped directly into the Captain’s path. “You will stand down. Now.”  
  
“Where is Bucky? What did you do to him?” the Captain was shouting now.   
  
“Captain Rogers. You have been warned to cease this behavior. The Dora do not take kindly to even perceived threats against their King.” T'Challa's patience was worn thin. This may present an opportunity to rid his country of the fugitives, however.  
  
The Captain lunged at T’Challa, presumably to grip him by his shirt, but Okoye stopped him with a spearhead pressed to his bare throat. “You do not touch my King,” she all but growled at him.  
  
T’Challa had reached his limit. He had seen enough to finally be able to force their exit without causing further international incidents. “Captain. Your welcome has come to an end. You and your team will gather your belongings and vacate Wakanda before the noon hour tomorrow. There will be dire consequences if you are not gone by the appointed time.”  
  
Okoye bared her teeth at the Captain as he finally backed down. She spun on her heel and followed T’Challa from the room. Good riddance, she thought.   
  
  
  
  
Tony and Shuri were waiting for Barnes to arrive for dinner. He paced back and forth. He wasn’t afraid to see Barnes. He wasn’t nervous. He just didn’t know what he would say. He had spent some time reading HYDRA files and watching horrifying videos. He couldn’t blame Barnes for what HYDRA had done. It was blatantly obvious Barnes was not there when The Winter Soldier was. He wasn’t angry at Barnes. He could talk to him like a normal person. They could have a conversation over dinner. Discuss the experiment he and Shuri had developed to free him of the triggers. Hmmm. Better not call it an experiment.  
  
He and the princess had a great time in the shop. They had brainstormed some ideas that seemed promising. The BARF technology would be able to get Barnes into the memories he had to access; the memories of the trigger words being implanted. BARF would let him change his reactions in the memory, but the words would still be there. Shuri had a program she had written that would remove the trigger effect, but only if Barnes were actively remembering the words when she did it. He couldn’t hear the words without being triggered. It was a loop of futileness. Combining the two, Barnes would be inside the memory, the words would be present in his mind, and Shuri’s program would separate the trigger from the synaptic firing that caused his reaction.  
  
When Barnes finally arrived, he looked clean and rested. Tony hadn’t realized how rumpled and tired he had looked before. He himself had changed out of his suit and into jeans and a band shirt. He had gotten grease on the suit. He didn't know how, he hadn’t been working with anything mechanical. It was like he was a grease magnet. Barnes was wearing jeans and a button down. He had the left sleeve pinned up. His hair was loose. Apparently, he needed help to get it into the ponytail it had been in earlier. Having just the one hand must be ridiculously inconvenient. How had he managed to button his shirt? How did he shower and dry off? Did someone else have to cut his meat?  
  
Damn it. Tony was going to have to build the man an arm.  
  
  
  
“So, Snowflake, I’ve been looking into your… situation. I have a crack legal team that I pay obscene amounts of money that can help you out. We’re thinking they can get you absolved for the killings and crimes committed while you were with HYDRA. And probably the crimes committed in Germany when you were triggered. Things aren’t as clear about the deaths and destruction in Bucharest. You were all your own Buckaroo Banzai self then.”  
  
“Deaths? What deaths? I mean, thank you. I can’t believe you would do that. It’s huge and... honestly, I can’t even wrap my brain around not going to prison or being executed for the things I did as The Winter Soldier. But, really. What deaths in Bucharest? Nobody told me anyone died!” Barnes' voice sounded panicked. Was it possible he didn’t know people had died? He had to know. He used lethal force, for cripes’ sake.  
  
“Sergeant Barnes, Bucky, we thought you knew. It was on the news and in the papers. Captain Rogers knew. We assumed, wrongly, that you and he had discussed it.” Princess Shuri looked like she might cry, like she had personally failed Barnes.  
  
“Look, Tin Soldier, of course people died. You hit a guy in the chest with a cinder block. Steve killed a man with the shield. One of you dropped a guy down the stairwell on a cord, broke his neck. A few of the JCTC officers are still in critical condition and will never fully recover from their injuries. And that’s just at the apartment. Did you think regular humans just walk away from hits like that? One guy was thrown out a third story window!” Tony tried to use his bored-with-this voice. He didn’t like the way Barnes was acting like he’d never heard this before.  
  
“What? What? I didn’t know. Oh my god. I never wanted to kill anybody again. I don’t do that. I don’t. Oh my god.” Barnes' face was white as a sheet.  
  
“Sorry to break it to you, Bucko. That guy you threw off the motorcycle died and quite a few people died in the tunnel after you blew the overpass. Crushed in their cars, broken necks from impacting vehicles or walls or debris in front of them, bleeding out from injuries because emergency services couldn’t get to them. It was a disaster. What did you expect?” Did Barnes not realize what happened when he beat up baseline humans?  
  
“I didn’t expect anything. I was in a panic when all that happened and until after Siberia I never even had time to think. Once I was in Wakanda, no one said anything about it. Why didn’t anybody tell me?”  
  
Princess Shuri kept quiet and just looked from Tony to Barnes and back. She looked like she was at a tennis match. Tony couldn’t summon the flippancy to laugh at her. There was nothing funny about this situation.  
  
“Why didn’t you ask?” Tony believed that Barnes didn’t know that people had died. But he should have known. He should have taken responsibility for finding out what his actions resulted in. Instead, he was living with his head in the sand.  
  
Tony watched the expressions flit across Bucky’s face. That was chagrin, probably at his failure to think about what he’d done. That was embarrassment at realizing he had been stupid not to ask. Next was horror, he was obviously ticking through his actions in Romania and seeing what he had done in a new light. After, there was sorrow and guilt, and finally determination. That man was probably as stubborn as Rogers. He could hear it already, Barnes was going to volunteer to be locked up for the people he killed. Ask to be taken to jail right now if possible.  
  
“Stark. Thank you for telling me. I can’t believe Steve kept this from me. You should probably call the police. I’ll go quietly. Or, I can get a cab. That wouldn’t draw attention to you as much as police showing up at the tower. Yeah. I’ll go get my… huh, guess I won’t need my stuff, will I?” Yep, there he went. Those ‘40s boys could be predictable.  
  
Barnes rose from the table as if to leave the room. Princess Shuri reached her hand out to stop him. Barnes flinched away.  
  
Tony just huffed. “Sit down, Skywalker. No one is going to jail, least of all you. My lawyers are on it. You will almost certainly stand trial for those deaths. But, there were extenuating circumstances. There won’t be murder charges. You might do some time, you might not. The super spies weren’t put in jail for the shenanigans they got up to, they just went to work for the government and basically did community service for ten years instead of getting locked up.”  
  
“But, I should be put away! I don’t want to hurt people anymore. I keep doing it anyway. I’m a monster and I can’t always control myself. Even when I’m not triggered. I’m not safe.” Barnes had sat down again and now he had his head in his hands. His shoulders started to shake. Tony thought he was crying.  
  
“Don’t hatch your chickens before they get in the basket. Let the lawyers figure it out for you. They’ll let you know what they can do. They will do everything they can to help, that’s what they get paid for.” Tony paused. Would saying this upset Barnes? They didn’t do it in the ‘40s. When the opportunity was offered to Rogers, he turned it down flat and was offended that anyone mentioned it at all.   
  
It needed saying. He might as well be the one to bite the proverbial bullet. “You can deal with the feeling-like-a-monster aspect if you get some counseling. There are some really good therapists out there who deal with POWs and PTSD and even brainwashing.”  
  
“God, Stark. I can never say thank you enough. Or I’m sorry. I could apologize all day every day for years and never say it enough. I’ll get therapy if it’ll help.” Barnes seemed sincere. He would certainly benefit from therapy. Especially if he was going to be using BARF. Reliving traumatic memories was, well, it was traumatic. “You don’t have to do this for me. You got no reason to help me. I don’t deserve it.”  
  
“Everyone deserves a second chance, Barnes. Even monsters.”  
  
Tony had felt as many emotions as he could deal with for the day. “Alright. Dinner is done. I am going to work. Make yourselves comfortable. Watch TV, read a book, go to sleep, whatever it is princesses and one-armed wonders do for entertainment. I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, folks. Today is Christmas Eve. I am going to be way too busy and preoccupied to get chapter 6 put up on Christmas Day. I feel like I'm depriving y'all of a present, but I am just not going to be able to get it done. Chapter 6 will go up on the 26th, maybe in the usual midnight to 1 AM east-coast US time slot, but maybe later in the day. I will still have family in from out-of-town. I promise to get it up sometime that day, as early as I can manage.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony laid in his broken suit, gasping for breath, and decided if he lived he would no longer shoulder the blame for any of Steve Rogers’ actions. The arc reactor was cold and dark, split down the middle in a shield-shaped crack. His ribs were broken and he could feel them grinding against his lungs. He couldn’t inhale deep enough to get the oxygen he needed. It felt like a vise was squeezing his chest. He was pretty sure his arm was broken. It was almost numb, though, so maybe it wasn't broken. Maybe he was in heart failure. It was so cold. The snow was drifting in and settling on him, dusting the red of his suit into a powdery white. His eyelashes were damp with snow and starting to freeze, sticking together. All he could see in his mind was the video of his parents’ murder playing on repeat. He decided he would close his eyes for a minute, just for minute, before he tried again to reach his broken comm unit.  
  
  
  
Tony woke strapped down in a helicopter. He flailed in panic.  
  
“Do not worry, Sir. I will not let any further harm come to you.” Vision was by his side, holding his hand while adjusting an IV line.  
  
He was confused until Vision looked at him, then he remembered. Siberia, the video, the fight, the cold, so very cold. Someone had come for him in Siberia. He hadn’t told Vision where he was going, but Vision had come for him anyway. He trusted Vision. Vision would keep watch now, Tony could rest a bit longer.  
  
  
  
When he woke again, he was in a sterile, white hospital room. Pepper was sitting beside him. Her eyes were closed and her neck was going to hurt when she woke up. Tony took the time to take inventory of himself. He definitely had a broken left arm. His ribs were certainly broken. But the amount of bandaging suggested he’d been in surgery. So, the artificial sternum had probably also been broken. He wondered if his lung capacity was further reduced. He didn’t have an abundance of lung to begin with, this was going to be a setback. His right wrist was wrapped, his left knee was in a brace, and he had some sort of bandage on his head. He was on the good stuff though, because he wasn't in any pain. He tentatively pressed the bandages over his ribs. They were very thick, thicker than he had realized. Under the gauze and padding, right in the center of his chest, he could feel a hard edge. He followed it around in a circle. He slumped his head back and dropped his hand.  
  
Pepper’s head jerked up and she groaned. “Tony, Tony, are you alright? Are you in pain?” She sounded frantic and on the verge of tears as she sat up straight and grabbed the hand with the sprained wrist.  
  
“A few tears for your near-dead boss?” Tony kept his face very serious. He didn’t want Pepper to think she needed to hold him up emotionally.  
  
“Tears of joy. I hate job-hunting.” Pepper smiled through her tears at the familiar banter.  
  
“Yeah, vacation’s over. I need you to get legal and the Foundation focusing on taking care of the mess in Europe. Please.”  
  
“Of course. Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”  
  
“That will be all, Miss Potts.”  
  
Even before Pepper finished gathering her things to leave, he fell back into sleep.  
  
  
  
Tony was finally alert on the second day out of Siberia. He was sitting up in bed, tapping away on a Starkpad when Rhodey came in the room. In a wheelchair. That meant the surgery had not been able to repair the damage. His friend was paralyzed. Tony felt a sudden crushing weight of guilt. He had brought Rhodey into this. Rhodey had been injured on his watch. He couldn’t put the blame for this on Vision. Wanda had him so tangled up he could barely see straight. What had happened to Rhodey was on all on him,  
  
“Get that look right off your face, Stark. You know this wasn't your fault. I’m a pilot. Every single time I fly, I take this risk.” Rhodey came as close to the bed as his chair would allow. It was close enough.  
  
Tony reached out with his right hand. Rhodey clasp it tightly. “You wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for me.”  
  
“You don’t know that. None of the other Avengers have the kind of strength and firepower that War Machine does. With Rogers and Barnes running roughshod over Europe, they very well may have called me in anyway. The US military could have taken the responsibility of bringing in American fugitives. Even without you, those two would have escaped custody and someone would have been sent to retrieve them. The whole world knows War Machine is the one the Air Force sends when they need the big guns.”  
  
“Okay, Rhodey. Okay. We’ll agree to disagree and I’ll try to let it go. This isn't about me, it’s about you. Tell me everything the doctors said so I can work up a plan to get you back on your feet.”  
  
Tony always did function better if he had a project, a goal, a purpose. Right now, Rhodey would be his purpose.  
  
  
  
When Tony thought about it later, after Rhodey had gone, after lights out, he placed the blame for Rhodey’s paralysis on Steve Rogers. Somehow it all circled back to him. All of Tony’s life, his father had held Steve Rogers up as a paragon of humanity. A good man. And Tony had never measured up. He spent his entire childhood being unfavorably compared to a dead man. When SHIELD found Captain America and thawed him out, Tony had no plan to meet the man. Loki had forced his hand. The Steve Rogers he met in Germany was stiff-necked and lacking a sense of humor. On the helicarrier, he was even worse. He was pompous and self-righteous. He was full of himself and belittled Tony without even knowing him. He judged Tony based off of someone else’s opinion instead of forming his own. “Seen the footage.” Whatever.  
  
Rogers had momentarily reversed his biased opinion when Tony had flown that missile into space. But it really hadn’t taken long for him to reverse it right back. Rogers nagged Tony about his brash personality. Tony was too loud. Tony was too rich. Tony was too shallow. Tony was a war profiteer because he made weapons. Tony shamed his country when he stopped making weapons for the military. Tony talked too much. It was always something. Tony was never good enough for Rogers. Just like he’d never been good enough for Howard. Rogers really admired Howard. Tony wasn’t enough like Howard for him. Thank god for small favors.  
  
  
  
When Tony had made a hotheaded decision and given his address out to a terrorist, he briefly thought he had a team that would back him up. He didn't. Not one Avenger or SHIELD agent called him. Not one of them came to Malibu. Not one of them even called Pepper after Tony was presumed dead. Rhodey was the only one who came to help him take down AIM. He tried not to let it bother him. He tried. But it bothered him anyway. He hadn’t fooled himself into thinking any of them were his friends. But he had thought they were a team. That a team was made of people who had your back. Who came when you needed help. He was mistaken.  
  
  
  
So he really shouldn’t have been surprised when no one told him SHIELD was HYDRA, Nick Fury was dead, and Captain America was a wanted man. He had to learn about it on the news just like everyone else. He watched the helicarriers crash into the city and wondered why no one disconnected the repulsor power. If the repulsors were offline, the helicarriers couldn’t rise. And why were there three helicarriers when he had only contracted for one? Oh, yeah. HYDRA. Washington was half destroyed because no one bothered to ask the man who designed it how to turn it off. Cap had come to him later. Months later. He’d asked Tony to help fund his search for Bucky, The Winter Soldier. Tony couldn’t just hand over unlimited funds, but he gave what help he could. He kept a Quinjet available for Rogers’ use and let him have unlimited gasoline for it. If he’d only known that he was helping Captain America find and protect the man who murdered his parents.  
  
  
  
The last straw in the farce of a relationship Tony had with the Avengers was Ultron. They’d gone to Sokovia as a team. They’d fought against Ultron as a team. But the team had then turned on him. Thor hadn’t minded them examining the sceptre, until it activated, then he blamed Tony for messing with something he didn't understand. He and Bruce hadn’t been messing with it. They’d just been running diagnostics. Then Rogers had brought the HYDRA witch who wanted him dead onto the team. Bruce noped right out. Tony still had no idea where he was. Tony was left with no options. He couldn’t stay on a team that would admit a member that actively hated him. She wasn’t safe to be around. He was actually afraid of her. Rogers took her under his wing and Tony was left out in the cold.  
  
  
  
Somehow, after he left the team, things got worse. They all acknowledged that Sokovia had been a horrible disaster. Yet, the Avengers didn't seem to have learned any lessons from it. They kept going on missions in countries where they had no business. They were pursuing their own agenda and not following any legal protocols. Illegally crossing sovereign borders, while wearing the US flag, and leaving death and destruction in their wake looked a lot like a declaration of war. Good intentions rarely mattered when the ends could not be justified by the means. When that building blew up in Lagos, it was the end of the Avengers, they just didn't know it yet.  
  
Since the inception of the team, since the destruction of New York at the hands of both the Avengers and the aliens, there had been outcry against them. SHIELD was a shadow agency. The people had no way of knowing what the Avengers purpose was, what their possible missions might be, where they might go, what they might do. SHIELD wasn’t answering any questions. So around the world, people started submitting legislation. Demanding that there be transparency in the Avengers actions. Fury held them off by claiming the Avengers were only for threats that the regular emergency forces couldn’t handle. For a while, the movement was quiet and slow. When Fury died and SHIELD was exposed, the people of the world raised their voices again. The Avengers had been a subsidiary of SHIELD. SHIELD was HYDRA. Were the Avengers HYDRA? Were they operating under HYDRA’s purview? Who would be responsible for the Avengers if there was no SHIELD? Who would assign their missions? Who would file their paperwork, get their approval documents, supply their intelligence? Who would take responsibility for the destruction they left behind when their missions were finished? There were no satisfactory answers.  
  
After Sokovia, the voices of the people became the voices of their nations. Every government in the world wanted answers to those questions. Every nation wanted some control over what the Avengers wanted to do in their country. The slow progress of bureaucracy sped up. CSPAN talked of nothing else for weeks on end. A new Secretary of State was appointed. General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, an enemy of enhanced humans everywhere and particular persecutor of Bruce Banner. He finagled his way into being a spokesman for the United States in matters related to the legislation that was now being called The Sokovian Accords. Lagos was the final nail in the coffin. Every obstacle that had still stood in the way of The Accords coming to a vote vanished.  
  
  
  
Good old Thunderbolt insisted he be the one to deliver the documents to the team. Tony went too, hoping to mitigate the clash bound to happen between Ross and the enhanced Avengers. Maximoff was on precarious ground. She was in the country on a work visa whose grounds were mostly fabricated. She was really only allowed because she lived and worked with Steve Rogers. With the deaths in Lagos being laid at her feet by the press, her visa was likely to be revoked. Ross’ reactionist group, The Watchdogs, were saying that throwing her out of the country was too soft a measure. They were calling for her imprisonment and a death sentence. Adding the Accords discussion to that quagmire was a recipe for disaster. Ross was too overbearing and heavy-handed to deal with Rogers or the witch.  
  
Unfortunately, Tony’s presence at the meeting backfired. The team was biased against him almost as much as they were against Ross. Nothing he said got through to them. They had been living with their heads in the clouds. They hadn’t even heard of the Accords. They were blindsided by the thought of anyone having jurisdiction over them again. Especially Steve. The paragon of truth and justice didn’t want anyone curbing his actions. After dismissing the Accords outright and implying that they were somehow thought up by Tony, Steve got a text. He checked it, and then got up and left the room. He shut down the discussion and walked away.  
  
Tony found out later that Aunt Peggy was dead. Her funeral was scheduled the same morning as the Accords vote in Vienna. He had to be in Vienna to represent the Avengers and American superheroes in general. It hurt his heart to miss seeing her off. But he had responsibilities to see to and he couldn’t afford to bend to his emotional needs. The fate of the Avengers hung in the balance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little bit of dialogue quote in there from the original Iron Man movie


	7. Chapter 7

The day after coming home from the hospital post Siberia, Tony received a call from Thunderbolt Ross. The RAFT had been compromised and the Avengers had been broken out. Ross was sure Tony had something to do with it, he insisted the security was too tight for anyone else to have hacked the system. Tony graciously pointed out that since he hadn’t programmed the security, it was definitely not too tight for someone else to break. His best guess was Natasha, but he didn’t share that with Ross. The General tried to bully Tony into revealing where the rogue Avengers were at the moment. Tony could say with honesty that he didn’t know. He had his guesses, but Ross didn’t ask for a guess. Tony hadn’t seen them or spoken to them or anyone affiliated with them since Siberia. He had barely gotten home from the hospital and was in no condition to be chasing down fugitives. Ross was angry and blustery but had to concede that Tony was probably not involved.  
  
Tony may not have spoken to his previous teammates, but he had a good idea of where they were. Vision had told him that he found him in Siberia based on an “anonymous” tip. Vision had all of the working knowledge of computers that JARVIS and Tony had. He was able to easily trace the call back to a satellite accessed by King T’Challa of Wakanda. Why he was helping the people who ripped the Accords to shreds was anyone's guess. If his hand wasn’t forced, Tony was going to pretend none of those people existed.  
  
  
  
It took Tony most of that first week to produce a prototype set of braces for Rhodey. He thought he could have gotten it done sooner if he wasn’t dealing with a broken arm and a sprained wrist. The first set was rudimentary. Rhodey could stand in them and walk a few steps very stiltedly. They weren’t going to be good enough, but now he had a base from which to work on improvements.  
  
Tony checked in on the Spider-Kid and assigned Happy to be a liaison between them. Happy would field any calls the Spiderling made and requests that he had and Tony could concentrate on the disasters he still had to clean-up.  
  
If Tony pretended to be too busy to talk to Pepper or Rhodey about what really happened in Siberia, well, they couldn’t prove he was lying.  
  
  
  
Tony had been home for almost two weeks when a flip phone and the world’s worst fake apology letter arrived. Rogers had sent him an archaic piece of tech and a handwritten note. His handwriting was terrible, too. Rhodey had a great time laughing at Tony’s expense over the Stank thing. It was good to see him laugh. To reward Rhodey for his playful teasing, Tony promptly presented him with the second iteration of the leg braces. Tony burned the letter and gave the phone to Dum-E to play with. There was no way he was calling Rogers. He’d let the world be invaded by aliens first. Okay, he wouldn’t let that happen. But he would make every effort to handle it without Rogers. He’d call in Frank Castle first.  
  
  
  
“Hey, Tones. When are you going to tell me why you came home from Siberia beat to a pulp? Vision told me the Winter Soldier Core were all shot in the head. You didn’t fight them, so who did you fight?” Rhodey tried every few days to stealthily slip Siberia into the conversation. He wasn’t very stealthy.  
  
“Aw, Rhodey-bear. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” Rhodey leveled a glare at him. “Okay. I fought Rogers and Barnes. You knew they weren’t going to allow themselves to be brought in.” Tony hoped that as long as he stuck to truths and half-truths Rhodey would accept whatever Tony told him.  
  
  
  
T’Challa contacted him to discuss revisions to the Accords. Tony was stunned that the man had the audacity to mention the Accords while harboring fugitive superheroes. Tony was skeptical to begin with, expecting T’Challa to renege on the promises made to the UN by Wakanda. T’Challa seemed sincere and the suggestions he made for amendments were good ones. Tony agreed to work with him via video chats until they could hammer out a good revised copy to bring to the UN. Tony was relieved that T'Challa wasn't giving up on following the policies his father had championed. Knowing that he had taken in Rogers and his friends kept Tony's suspicions alert, but nothing T'Challa wanted in the Accords endorsed the behavior of the rogue Avengers in Europe. He also never gave a hint that he had them under his protection. Tony kept his own knowledge of their location to himself.  
  
  
  
One day, the video call he accepted from Wakanda was not T’Challa. It was a very young looking girl with a grim and determined expression.  
  
“Dr. Stark, hello. Thank you for taking my call. I am Shuri, T’Challa is my brother. I am in charge of the technical research and development for Wakanda. I would like very much for you to consider conferring with me on a… very delicate case.” The young woman didn’t look old enough to be running anything except slumber parties, let alone advanced sciences. Tony knew Peter though, and he himself had been a teen prodigy. He was willing to listen.  
  
“Of course, Princess. What do you think I can help you with?” He wanted to sound as nonchalant as possible. He didn't want to give a false sense of agreeing to work with her before knowing all of the details. After all, there was only one delicate case in Wakanda that came to mind.  
  
“I have seen the MIT demonstration of your BARF system. I read the paper you wrote about how it works. It was very impressive. Very advanced. I was hoping you could advise me in my own endeavor working with painful memories.”  
  
“Why would you need me? Or BARF? T’Challa assures me Wakanda is light years ahead of the world in technology. Can’t you handle it?” Tony knew exactly who she was talking about helping. He wasn’t sure he was ready to do that though. He wasn't angry at Barnes anymore but that didn't mean he wanted to help his parents' killer.  
  
“Wakanda is very advanced compared to other first world countries. We have Vibranium, which assists in keeping our advancements very cutting edge. The only competition to Wakanda’s superiority is you, Dr. Stark." Tony was surprised to hear her compliment him. The Princess then dropped all pretense about Wakanda's secret guests. "I have tried, using several different methods, to remove the programming that is in his mind. I am simply unable to do it alone. Every attempt has to be halted early due to the triggering process activating. Please. This is for the good of a man who has been abused enough.”  
  
“Look, Princess. I know who you’re talking about. I would probably help, just because I think no one should have to live with that in their head, but I don’t see how I could contribute. The BARF tech isn’t really something that can be used from a distance. I don’t think I can help you at this time.” He was flattered that she had called but not enough to get involved in long-distance brain manipulation.  
  
  
  
After a little over a month, the final round of stitches was removed from Tony’s chest area. He had already taken to wearing thick black layers. The bright glow of the arc reactor made him think too much of Siberia. He couldn’t stand it. He had moved beyond this and now he had been set back. Dr. Cho explained that the Cradle wasn’t able to generate internal organs, so Tony’s lungs could not be helped. And there simply wasn’t enough viable material left undamaged to generate bone and muscle tissue in Tony’s chest. The arc reactor would have to remain.  
  
  
  
To distract himself, he built the third version of leg braces for Rhodey. These were much better than his previous attempts. Rhodey was able to walk and stand almost normally for the whole day. He did get tired faster than he used to, but part of that could just be his recent forced inactivity. He also revisited Princess Shuri’s quandary. He didn't know a lot about The Winter Soldier or James Barnes. He had Friday cull the SHIELD data and send him anything relevant to those topics. It was eye-opening.  
  
Barnes had been kept for 70 years by the enemy. He’d been taken during war-time, so he was a POW, the longest captured POW of all time. It was a shame that a war hero had been so mistreated. The more he read, the worse things were. Barnes had been tortured, extensively, for years on end. He had undergone repetitive “routine” electroshock treatments to the point that his brain stopped forming memories and lost the ability to cinnect with the memories he already had. They had stored him in a cryochamber for years at the time. He had been programmed, basically mind controlled, into The Winter Soldier persona. It wasn’t who he was at all. It was a construct of HYDRA’s warped imagination. Barnes literally had no ability to control his own actions. Every time he showed any personality or clear thinking, they returned him to the chair for recalibration or froze him. James Barnes had not killed his parents. The Winter Soldier had. Tony could feel his resolve against helping Barnes soften.  
  
  
  
Since the media-dubbed Civil War, Pepper had been keeping him out of the public eye as much as possible. He couldn't avoid going out forever and eventually he had to make an appearance. Thankfully, she didn’t force him to attend any press conferences. He was coerced, instead, into attending a charity event. The Maria Stark Foundation was raising funds to help repair the destruction the Avengers had left behind in Romania and Germany. Luckily they weren’t on the hook for the Vienna bombing. Tony had personally handled most of the medical expenses for civilians hurt because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Each countries’ infrastructure was covering the costs for their emergency personnel injured in the line of duty.  
  
It was bittersweet to dance with her knowing that she was no longer his. The break-up had been painful for him, but not a surprise. She was never going to be able to live with Iron Man and Tony was never going to be able to live without him. Her smile fell a little more each time she looked at the light dimly glowing under his suit. Tony hated that the reactor had to be put back, but it served as an unavoidable reminder that he would always be Iron Man. He spun through the night smiling, schmoozing and glad-handing his way through rich, old people doing his best to convince them that he, if not the Avengers themselves, was a good investment.  
  
  
  
When Princess Shuri called again a week later, he found himself more willing to listen. Her proposal to combine his BARF technology with a program she had written that would destabilize the reaction associated with the trigger words was brilliant. And Tony thought it might actually work.  
  
“I am hoping that you will allow me to use BARF to deprogram Sergeant Barnes. If it can not be used via satellite, then perhaps you will allow me to borrow it? I know that he wronged you, but he is suffering here. He needs to have HYDRA’s hold over his mind broken.” Shuri’s words were impassioned. She truly wanted to help Barnes, clearly believed it was possible and felt that Tony was the only one who could make it happen.  
  
“I will not send BARF to Wakanda. First of all, it's proprietary and experimental tech. No one, besides me, is able or should be allowed to operate it. Even if it would help, you couldn’t do it without me.” It was impossible from an ethical and legal standpoint to let anyone else utilize BARF. And he didn’t trust anyone enough to allow them unsupervised access to his tech anymore.  
  
There was an even bigger hurdle to using BARF on Barnes, “Unfortunately, I can’t bring it to you and help you in person because I refuse to be in the same country as my former friends, and Wakanda is supposedly not open to outsiders. I can’t send it to you, and I can’t come myself. I’m sorry, truly sorry, that Barnes can’t be helped this way. I’m willing to consult with you to find another solution.”  
  
“I understand, Dr. Stark. Please allow me a few days to find a solution to this problem.”  
  
“Sure thing, kiddo. Have a good night.”  
  
The next day, Princess Shuri called again. “If you would be amenable, Dr. Stark, my brother has agreed that it would be to the best benefit of Sergeant Barnes if he left Wakanda. The company he has here is becoming detrimental to his recovery. We would like to formally request entry to your lab and use of your BARF technology in New York, with your assistance.”  
  
  
  
Two days later, Princess Shuri and James Barnes exited the elevator into Tony’s home.


	8. Chapter 8

Princess Shuri met Tony in the workshop the next morning. They spent hours going over BARF and the program Shuri had written. Tony was ecstatic to have someone intelligent and interested to bounce ideas off of. Hearing Princess Shuri’s thoughts and working process was fascinating. He had always enjoyed seeing the different paths scientists used to bring their projects to completion. Before the end of the day, they had succeeded in finding a way to merge their two projects into one system that they believed would help Barnes. In the meantime, Tony had Friday do the research to find an acceptable psychologist for Barnes. Locating someone who specialized in POWs, PTSD, and brainwashing was pretty much a one in a million shot. Friday was more than up to the task. Tony saying he’d pick up the bill had the therapist agreeing to start the next day and to make the sessions house calls.  
  
  
  
On the second full day that Barnes and the princess were in the tower, Tony called them to an empty apartment to work with the BARF. Princess Shuri was there to activate her coding at precise moments during the program, while Tony was on hardware duty and keeping BARF running smoothly. Tony was nervous about touching Barnes. He wasn't afraid of him. He didn’t think Barnes was going to suddenly lash out or attack him. It was like an instinctual fear response. Barnes had lashed out. He had attacked him. He had hurt Tony badly. Tony wasn't afraid, but his lizard brain wasn’t convinced that Barnes was safe. Tony sucked it up and stuck the electrodes to the right places on Barnes’ head. He adjusted the glasses and asked the right questions to make sure Barnes was properly connected to the retro-frame. If he was sweating more than he should have been, well he used excellent deodorant and no one else had to know.  
  
Tony stepped back and watched Barnes’ first memory scene come alive. While still in Wakanda, Princess Shuri had worked with Barnes to find the way he needed to focus in order to find the correct memories to use for her own attempts to remove the triggers. It was no surprise when Barnes’ memory was a dark, concrete room with poor lighting. It reminded Tony of the Siberian bunker. In fact, Tony thought, it might be the Siberian bunker. Memory Barnes was strapped down to a grotesque dental chair. There was an IV tube connected to him as well as a few medical machines measuring things that Tony could only guess at. Several men in HYDRA uniforms were milling around. One had a clipboard and three wore lab coats but at least four others were holding heavy assault rifles and pointing them at Barnes. Who was strapped down. What did they expect him to do? The three men in lab coats were hovering over Barnes’ prone form. One was putting a crown around Barnes' head. No, not a crown, but a nearly complete circle of metal with electrode connections. Another shoved a bite guard into Barnes' mouth. Tony recognized this setup. He had seen a video like this in The Winter Soldier's files. The third doctor was holding a red, hardcover book. It looked like the one Zemo had in Berlin.  
  
Memory Barnes immediately began to thrash and struggle. Before the first lab coat could finish connecting the electrodes, Barnes reared up in a tremendous feat of strength. He broke the bonds holding his metal arm and backhanded the lab coat guy attaching the crown with his metal fist. The side of his head caved in and he hit the floor with a solid thump. The assault rifles lit up. Several bullets slammed into Barnes’ body. None of the shots were aimed to kill, but the pain of being shot from less than six feet away eight or twelve times had to be horrible. Barnes jerked in the chair and fell back. The second lab coat, the one with the bite guard, stepped close, taking his life in his own hands. He injected something into Barnes’ IV that had a near immediate effect. Barnes slumped down in the chair and closed his eyes.  
  
In the empty apartment, actual Barnes ripped the glasses from his face and started trying to detach himself from the electrodes. He was frantic. He was nearly hyperventilating and tears were flowing down his face.  
  
“No! No. I don’t want to be there. I can’t do this!” He was yelling and had his hand tangled in the thin line of the electrode cord.  
  
Tony rushed to him to help. Barnes flinched back from him so hard he almost fell. Tony held both hands up and away from his body to show he was unarmed and harmless. Barnes didn't need to know that Tony was never, ever unarmed since Siberia. Tony's watch was a fold-away gauntlet. The Winter Soldier had seen one before, but Barnes didn't know that trick. He seemed to calm down a bit, enough that he stepped back toward Tony and was still while Tony removed the equipment.  
  
“Okay. That was not a good beginning. But, we can do better.” Tony tried to sound optimistic.  
  
“Sergeant Barnes, that was a painful memory and did not seem to be related to the trigger words. However, it was still useful. You now have some idea of how the program feels and what mental muscles you need to flex to access memories through it and project them. All you have to do is focus that muscle flex to hit the correct memories.” Princess Shuri was as calm and regal as ever. Tony thought she must be completely unflappable. The closest he’d seen to an emotional reaction from her was when she tried to stop Barnes from leaving dinner a few nights ago.  
  
Barnes hadn’t spoken again. His head was bowed and his hair hid his face. His fists were clenched tightly and his shoulders were thrown back and very broad and rigid. Tony watched him for a minute before Barnes got his breathing under control, shook himself, and finally looked up. Though he had stopped crying, his face still had dried tear tracks on it, he looked determined.  
  
“Alright. I can do it. Let’s try again.” Barnes voice didn’t even waver.  
  
“Are you sure? Do you need to meditate or something to find the right memories?” Tony didn’t want to have to do this more than was absolutely necessary. Both for his sanity and for Barnes’. He knew from experience how much BARF took out of you. How exhausted it left you feeling, not just physically but emotionally and mentally. Barnes was going to suffer doing this. And Tony honestly didn't want to watch The Winter Soldier’s highlight reel. He would rather not be up close and personal with HYDRA’s gentle treatment of a living, breathing human being. The fewer sessions needed, the better.  
  
“No. I got it. That memory was related. It was just one of the early attempts to program the words, one of the ones that failed. I can focus on the ones that succeeded. I was just off a little bit. It was a little shocking to see myself kill that guy.”  
  
Tony thought he himself would have been more affected by seeing himself shot repeatedly and then tranqed, but Barnes had his own demons and they weren’t the same as Tony’s. Tony reconnected the electrodes and placed the glasses back on Barnes' face. The room dissolved into that dark, dank, bunker with Barnes strapped to the chair.  
  
  
  
Tony met with Princess Shuri and Barnes in the empty apartment every morning. He watched Barnes struggle with the horrible memories he was reliving. He didn't have as tight a grasp on the BARF as Tony had. He could call up the correct memories, but he couldn’t always control them. His actual self often broke down when his memory self did. He was trying. And he was not a quitter, that was for sure. It was heartbreaking. Tony hadn’t expected to feel so much sympathy for Barnes. Watching him confront those memories every day, seeing his darkest fears come to life, reliving some of the worst experiences a person could suffer through. Tony would have to have literally been made of iron in order to withstand having a compassionate response to Barnes.  
  
Barnes retreated after BARF to therapy. He had an appointment to see his therapist every day that he participated in a BARF session. It was important to his mental health that he process the memories he was dredging up. Tony had seen a therapist for the entire time he’d been experimenting with BARF. He felt bad for Barnes, it wasn’t easy to face the past, especially when the past was so ugly and painful. Tony believed it would have broken him to have repeatedly relieved that last night with his parents without the help of a professional.  
  
Afterward, Barnes took himself to his room and didn’t show his face until dinner. He was always showered and neatly dressed when he showed up. But the dark circles under his eyes and the fatigue lines that were beginning to show on his face were clear signs he wasn’t resting. He was quiet. Tony told himself that he wasn’t worried so much as feeling his responsibility toward anyone using his equipment. He couldn’t help but keep a careful eye on Barnes whenever he saw him. If the man was going to break, Tony wanted to know as soon as it started. As for their dinners, Princess Shuri proved to be quite the conversationalist. She could talk almost as much as Tony could. Her enthusiasm for science was delightful. Between them, they kept social interactions as light and friendly as they could.  
  
After more than a week of watching Barnes flinch and cry and rip the glasses from his face during BARF, there was finally a breakthrough. One session, something changed. It started the same as the others, Barnes in the chair, the bunker an obvious villain lair, thugs and mad scientists all around. But when the third lab coat opened the book, actual Barnes stepped forward and caught memory Barnes’ attention. The third lab coat read the words and the first lab coat flipped the switch to electrify memory Barnes brain. But memory Barnes had all of his attention focused on actual Barnes. He didn't scream, his body didn’t bow up and freeze in pain, he just looked his alternate self directly in the eyes. When the words had all been said and the electricity had been turned off, memory Barnes finally turned his gaze away, not having been affected at all. Actual Barnes stepped back and looked at Tony as he pulled the glasses off with a flick of his wrist and a smug smirk on his face.  
  
“I think we’re done.” Barnes cracked his first smile since he arrived at the tower. He looked like he felt on top of the world. Tony couldn’t help but notice that it was a good look on him.  
  
  
  
They were not, in fact, done. It took more than one successful session to completely deactivate the triggers. But they were on the right path at last. Barnes used the BARF for the next ten sessions in a row being able to manipulate the scenario and prevent the words from taking hold in memory Barnes’ head. He tackled one trigger word per session, working hard and obviously pushing himself to make progress. During those sessions, Princess Shuri was able to map the places in his brain that were affected by the words. Each time she identified a trigger point, she sent a tiny piece of code down a wire to the electrodes. The code caused the electrode to emit a focused pulse that disrupted the trigger response. By the tenth time Barnes was helping his memory self, his own brain was no longer lighting up in reaction to the words at all. Now they were done.  
  
  
  
Tony had developed a soft spot for Barnes. He was a survivor. He was plucky. And since he started having success with the BARF, he was funny and a little charming. Tony wanted to keep helping him. He’d thought he would send Princess Shuri and Barnes packing back to Wakanda as soon as they were done with BARF. Now, he wanted Barnes to stay. Besides, Barnes therapist was here. Therapy seemed to be doing Barnes a world of good. Surely he would benefit more by staying with the same counselor he was used to. Tony had already begun the blueprints and schematics for a new arm. He felt it was really the least he could do. He was the one who shot it off. It was in the heat of battle, and pretty much deserving, but that was over now. He had seen what drove Barnes to commit the assassinations he was assigned. Even reading the files hadn’t been as eye-opening as seeing Barnes’ personal recollections. Barnes was a decent person. The Winter Soldier was the construct of a group of evil people. Tony just had to decide how much he was going to offer Barnes and how he would handle it when Barnes threw it all back in his face.  
  
Tony had to think about whether he was going to actually offer Barnes all of the things he had been thinking about offering since he started feeling compassion for him. A pardon, an arm, a place to stay for as long as he wanted, true forgiveness.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra beta work by CinnamonAnemone on the WinterIron discord

Tony was true to his word. By the time Bucky had cleared himself of the trigger words with the help of BARF, Tony's lawyers had procured a full pardon for Sergeant James Barnes, the longest-held POW in history. They had a celebration dinner the night before Shuri returned to Wakanda. He asked Bucky to stay on and live in New York, in the tower if he wanted. He explained that it would probably be better to be in a familiar place, like New York, where he could re-acclimate and so reclaim his former life. He desperately wanted Bucky to stay. His initial compassion for Bucky had exploded into a full-blown crush. He couldn't help but notice the ripple of muscles under his shirt, the twinkle in his slate blue eyes when he was amused, the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. Tony was absolutely done for. He sighed deeply in relief when Bucky agreed to stay in the tower for the foreseeable future.

 

A few weeks after Bucky successfully completed his BARF sessions, Tony brought him to the lab and pulled up several holographic images to show him. Bucky was amazed to see that each one was a partial schematic for a new prosthetic. An arm tailor-made for him. Even just in blueprints, he could see that it was beautiful.

Tony gestured broadly at the holograms. "It's half the weight of the HYDRA one. It has ten times the sensors: you'll be able to feel more than pressure and extreme temperatures. You'll feel textures and subtle temperature changes, and the pressure gauges will let you hold an egg without breaking it. Right now, it's pretty basic. But I can add a repulser to the palm, or rockets in the arm, or a laser to one of the fingers. You can decide what you want for upgrades."

For a moment, Bucky was completely speechless. He scarcely breathed. "I love the design for the arm, I really do, but I'm not sure I can accept another thing from you when I feel so indebted already," Bucky said quickly, flustered and nervous. "Tony, I want to be able to make it up to you. I want to make amends for killing your parents. I want to pay you back for not killing me in Siberia, for helping me with the BARF, for the pardon, for giving me a place to live."

"Oh, Buckaboo. You don't owe me anything. I don't blame you for The Winter Soldier's actions. I don't blame you for killing my parents, you didn't have control of that situation at all. I can't even blame The Winter Soldier for it, I know he didn't have a choice either. All the blame for that goes on HYDRA. You don't have to make amends for that."

"I owe you everything, Tony. My whole life right now is because of you."

"No, it isn't. Your whole life is because you broke the training of HYDRA when the helicarriers fell. You broke through that without me. You were strong and made the decision not to go back to them. You struck out on your own and worked for two years on recovering from what they had done to you. I just provided the means to help remove the triggers."

"No, you did so much more than that. Removing those triggers helped push the monster back, so he can never be forced to come out again. You got me pardoned, Tony. You convinced the world not to put me in a deep dark hole where I'd never see the light of day again. You gave me my freedom."

"Every man deserves to be free. You were never a monster, even The Winter Soldier wasn't. You were a victim, Winter was a tool. HYDRA nearly destroyed you and they manipulated you into becoming someone you were never meant to be. You deserve a clean slate, a fresh start."

"You're never going to let me repay you, are you?"

"Frostbite, the best way to repay me is also the best way to get revenge on HYDRA. Live well. Live a long, happy, productive life. There is no better way to pay me for the work I did and no better way to flip HYDRA the finger. Hey, you know what? You can start right now. Come with me to experience something you never have before. You ever heard of shawarma?"

 

Months later, Tony was still worrying about the eventual return of the alien army he had seen through the portal. He knew that the aliens had not simply turned away and gone back where they had come from. They had opened that portal and all it had done was shorten the distance of their attack. The reason they hadn't attacked again was only that they had to travel a long way and hadn't gotten here yet. He had rebuilt his Iron Legion and installed a new AI dedicated to nothing except the Legion. TADASHI was still young, but he was learning at a quick pace. Vision had taken on the task of tutoring TADASHI in human history and the subtle reasoning behind wars and the need for the continued existence of humans as a race. TADASHI had never expressed the thought that humans were the reason humans weren't safe, but it was always best to be safe rather than sorry. He had lived through that mistake once already. Tony was trying to be as prepared as was possible, but he knew he would need more superheroes than he had to fight off a bigger alien force. He’d found a neurosurgeon calling himself a sorcerer and four supers calling themselves The Defenders in New York in addition to the Spiderling. They were all willing to be called in when the time came. He recruited Hope Van Dyne to the cause and he'd actually spoken to Frank Castle. He was still going to need the rogues to come home and join the fight.

When the self-proclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy showed up with news of Thanos' timeline for arrival, the whole world finally accepted that Tony wasn't crazy or paranoid. The New Avengers started training in earnest at the compound. Tony and Bucky stayed in the tower and continued to develop defense systems against Thanos.

 

When Steve heard that Bucky had been given a full pardon, he expected his own to come any day. Instead, months dragged by and nothing happened. His resentment of Tony grew deeper with each week that passed after Bucky's pardon.

He and his team were in Estonia when a courier approached them at a coffee shop. He gave them a package of papers and left without a word. Inside the package was a letter from Tony's lawyers explaining that they had been located using trackers in their equipment. They were all angry that Tony had been spying on them. In addition to the letter, there was news that his team would be exonerated and allowed to return home, but there would be penalties.

Clint was given the choice to either return to retirement or sign the Accords and work for SHIELD. Scott would have to serve two years under house arrest and could only use the Ant-Man suit if he signed the Accords. Wanda wouldn't be charged by the UN for anything that happened during the time she had been with the Avengers, up to and including things she'd done in Europe. But Sokovia refused to pardon her for what they called war crimes in her home country. She wouldn't be allowed to go home to the compound or even the US under any circumstances and they were going to extradite her back to Sokovia to stand trial. They were stripping Sam of his military rank. They said if he signed the Accords, he could still be the Falcon but only if he worked for SHIELD. Natasha also had to suffer house arrest, though only for a year. Then she would be forced to sign the Accords and work for SHIELD or retire like Clint. Steve would be banned from calling himself an Avenger. He would never be allowed to return to the team as either a leader or a member. If he signed the Accords they would let him work for SHIELD but he wouldn't be given leadership of his team. They said his standing as Captain America was the only thing that kept his punishment from being even harsher.

Steve heard from Natasha that Tony had rebuilt his Iron Legion. His Ultron program. Steve knew it was a horrible mistake and that people would die because of Tony's arrogance again. Tony had also formed a new team but was still calling it The Avengers. He had some low-level supers from New York: a group of four who seemed to be a team even though only one wore a costume, the Spider-Boy, a magician, and Scott's girlfriend, the Wasp.

At first, Steve's team talked about accepting the conditions that Tony's lawyers had set for them. But Steve convinced them they could do better. They shouldn't have to sign the Accords or accept punishment when the Accords were corrupt, they had done nothing wrong, and the world obviously needed them. They would be brought back without punishments if they waited a while longer. They sent the paperwork back to Tony, unsigned.

A week later, another courier brought them a package. This time it was a thumb drive as well as the papers they hadn't signed. Natasha put the drive in a public computer, in case it was a virus. It was a video of Tony.

"Right now, Rogers is angry because he isn't getting his way. He's acting out and making everyone else pay for his lack of emotional control. His removal from the team was non-negotiable. All of the penalties for your returns are non-negotiable. If I don't push these pardons through, then Steve is going to suffer a lot more than a time-out. He's going to be serving 20-25 without a chance for parole. His temper tantrum has ruined any credibility we ever had. And we have very little chance of recovering it if Steve can't come to the table and act like an adult."

"If you all refuse to take your own deals, you will be charged and stand trial for whatever crimes the governments of Nigeria, Romania, and Germany decide you are responsible for. This is absolutely the best deal you are going to be offered. If you refuse this, there is a chance there will be no other deals offered. My lawyers will not be the ones negotiating anything for you if you don't sign these. You'll be on your own for finding lawyers and mustering a defense. These are good deals. These are the minimum punishments the governments involved are willing to concede to. Make up your own minds."

Steve's team deserted him in the night. Every one of them except for Wanda. He and Wanda stayed together as their own team. They traveled through Europe and Africa avenging the little guy and taking down bullies. Sometimes people died, but that couldn't be helped. There were times when the Accords people went in behind them and undid every good thing they had done. It was a shame.

Several months later, he and Wanda saw a broadcast of some aliens and a human calling themselves The Guardians of the Galaxy. They claimed that an alien force led by a titan called Thanos was heading toward Earth and would be there within two months. Steve waited a few weeks but heard nothing else from Tony. He and Wanda agreed to split up so that he could sneak back into New York and go to the compound and offer to help.

He wasn't warmly welcomed, but no one tried to make him leave. He was added to the practice roster but he didn't run into Tony a single time before Thanos arrived. A lot of good people died in the fight against Thanos. Steve was lucky not to be one of them. He saw Bucky on the battlefield but could never get close enough to him to talk. He heard rumors that Bucky was living in the tower with Tony, which made no sense at all and was probably false. After the battle, Bucky was nowhere to be seen. The human and the green lady from the Guardians of the Galaxy captured Thanos inside some artifact they brought with them from space.

The New Avengers refused Steve a place back on the team. They told him he wasn't welcome until he signed the Accords. He tried to get them to see how restrictive and dangerous the Accords were, but no one listened.

Tony came to him with a blank look on his face, "You should go. People will be looking for you. You were visible in the battle, and you're still a wanted man in this country. You go fight your own battles where you find them, but get out of here before someone shows up to arrest you."

Steve felt that he had no choice, so Captain America left his country, again.


	10. epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read and everyone who commented. You made me feel very loved and appreciated.

Before Thanos and possible world-ending catastrophes, when Bucky’s head had gotten clear and his fears had abated, he had begun to notice Tony as more than a victim of The Winter Soldier. He had started to see him as a man. A very attractive man. He had been pretty sure Tony had been looking at him, too. Bucky had known it would take time, probably a lot of time, for he and Tony to settle into friendship before they could even think of pursuing anythingmore. Bucky was sure he didn’t, and would never, deserve someone like Tony. But he hadn’t deserved being able to use something like BARF, or anything Shuri had done for him, or T’Challa taking him in, or a pardon. He’d been gifted those things regardless of whether he deserved them or not. Maybe he’d gotten spoiled because he discovered that he did want to go after this thing for himself. He had known that eventually, he would. He had thought he would be able to do it at his own pace.

He had been happy living in the tower with Tony. Because he didn’t have to worry about trigger words or being arrested, he had gone out to explore the city. He had walked up and down blocks, relearning the city of his youth. He had ridden the subway and delighted in not feeling a sense of panic at the press of strangers. He had visited museums and libraries to catch up on culture and history for the last near-century. He had settled into a new life. 

He spent time in the lab with Tony every day. They ate meals together at least once a day. They watched movies and TV shows. Tony was a flurry of activity at all times. Bucky was mesmerized. Tony talked when he worked. He talked about what he was working on for the most part. Bucky listened and tried to learn. Tony seemed surprised and said most people tuned out his science talk. Bucky was actually interested in science and was eager to see all the ways the science fiction of his time was the science reality of today. 

Things came to a head for him when the Guardians of the Galaxy showed up. He had been taking it slow but now the threat Tony had warned about and prepared for was imminent. Bucky didn’t want anything to happen to either of them without him having gotten the courage to make a move. He threw moving at his own pace out the window. He decided he would just put himself out there now.

 

For ten months, Tony had watched Bucky and believed that Bucky was watching him too. They smiled, they glanced away. They flirted and leaned in near to one another. They danced carefully around and never quite made contact. It was a little elegant, a lot frustrating. Because Bucky had a lot of recovery still to do, Tony wasn’t eager to push him into starting a relationship. He was so glad to have Bucky’s friendship all that time, that he was more than happy to wait until he knew Bucky was ready. It took him a while to sort out his feelings anyway. He liked Bucky, he was happy being friends with Bucky, he was attracted to Bucky. But he was nervous about starting a relationship with his parents’ technical killer. Sometimes, when he looked at Bucky from a certain angle, he could still see his parents’ killer. It happened more in the first couple of months or so, less as time went by. Finally, he realized that the reason he saw The Winter Soldier was because those times, Bucky’s face went completely blank. Bucky only went blank when he was at the verge of a panic attack. The longer Bucky was in therapy, the fewer and farther between his panic attacks occurred. By the time they’re gearing up for Thanos arrival, Bucky wasn’t having them at all anymore.

 

The day after the Guardians made their announcement, Bucky finally kissed Tony. They were sitting on a blanket watching the stars. Bucky made a small noise and Tony turned to face him. Bucky’s hand cupped his face. “Would you let me kiss you, Tony?” Tony tilted into Bucky’s chest and their mouths met. A bare skimming of lips at first, then a gentle pressing, constant contact. It was hours later when they went to their separate rooms, lips numb and swollen, hearts bursting.

The first time they made love was just three days later. They had both begun to worry about Thanos’ arrival and the possibility that this was all the time they would have. A scant few weeks together. The friendship they had built was nothing to dismiss, but having waited so long before furthering that made them nearly desperate. They threw caution to the wind and dived headlong into the romantic relationship they had put off for so long.

In the aftermath of Thanos, when the world was calm and their lives were out of harm’s way, barely a month passed before Bucky proposed. He felt there was no time to delay anymore. The type of lives superheroes led put them in constant danger. He didn’t want to waste the time that he and Tony could have together. The wedding of Tony Stark was a media circus. The small, private ceremony they had with just their friends and family was the one they treasured. The one they used pictures from to fill their photo album.

The day they came home from their honeymoon, Bucky announced to the press that he would not be taking a role with the New Avengers. He had spent the better part of 70 years fighting. He was ready to hang up his weapons and lead a life of peace. He took a position with the Maria Stark Foundation and worked to help others as much as he could.

It was over a year into their marriage before Steve finally agreed to sign the Accords and come home. Bucky had missed him tremendously. The short time they’d spent together in Wakanda was fraught with tension. It hadn’t felt anything like their previous friendship. Things didn’t immediately return to that closeness either, it took a while for them to get back to a semblance of what they had before. They worked at it before eventually finding a balance they could both benefit from. Steve joined the New Avengers, working under Major Danvers. It chafed a bit but he adjusted. Bucky was happy with his life and the way it had become complete. 

Tony stuck with the superhero work for ten more years before retiring. Within a year of that, he and Bucky had adopted two children orphaned in a fight between enhanced people. Tony thought it was the best way to fulfill their desire for children while also giving back in some way to victims of the inevitable fallout of battles between the powered. 

They moved to Malibu to raise their children beside the ocean. Though their life together had started with a nightmare, they planned to do all they could to make sure it ended like a daydream.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt mash-up from Imagine Tony and Bucky 2017
> 
> Imagine Bucky coming to Tony after the whole bullshit in Siberia because he can’t stand Steves hopeful glances and the knowledge that they left Tony Stark, the man who was hurt so much by the Winter Soldiers deeds in the cold, in the snow to HYDRAS mercy. The same way he himself was left - unintentional, okay, but left all the same. +bonuspoints for cuddletherapy™  
> &  
> Tony finds info about Hydra and everything that happened to Bucky during that time, forgives him & starts to admire his courage & stength. Finds way to deprogram Bucky & get pardons for Avengers.  
> &  
> can we get a fic that deals with the aftermath? like tony and bucky get together after civil war, they have evrything talked through BETWEEN THEM, but steve still thinks that tony is somehow worse than everyone, the avengers still hate tony, and tony is still depressed and so tired and so deeply hurt by how everyone is treating him. bucky decides to do something about it when he sees how they treat him


End file.
